The Homebrewing Q & A site has gotten me worried my batch 1 "Squito" light ale in growlers could explode from over-carbonation. A couple of commenters reported on growler bottoms bursting and sending shards of glass flying - not to mention the loss of sixty-four ounces of beer! The thin walled screw top growlers are prone to failing under excessive pressure. And another downside is the wide yeast cake that forms at the bottom of a growler. The cake makes the final pour murky unless you put the entire contents into a pitcher. On the other hand, one commenter says the half-growlers with Grolsch-style seals have worked for him without incident.
I moved all five growlers into a cooler to lessen the chances of beer spilling all over the place in the event of an incident. Now I wonder if I shouldn't wear safety goggles when I pull those growlers from the cellar. Time to clean some more bottles for the next batch.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Roiling Flocculation
The funny thing about what you read in brewing guidebooks and advice from other home brewers is that everybody has a different take on what the "right" way to brew is. Before I could even begin to understand how important some of the best tips are to my brewing process, I'm quickly realizing I need to have made a few batches of beer and tasted the end product.
As an example, my first batch of Light Ale had so little trub after racking to the primary fermenter I didn't notice it much as the yeast started doing their thing. But the organic Double IPA settled with an inch thick layer of tan blobs an hour after pitching the yeast. Then, after 24 hours of quiet buildup, bubbles are now popping out of the airlock at two per second. The trub layer has gotten churned up by the active yeast till there's almost none left on the bottom of the primary fermenter. Aside from the color and the fantastic smell, the churn reminds me of how cream erupts in tea with a little lemon. (How I know what this looks like is another story having to do with an interstate road trip and sleep deprivation.) The contents of the fermenter could not be mistaken for anything but living and very vigorous organisms.
John Palmer's advice in "How To Brew" is that I should have let the wort settle for a couple of hours in a five gallon carboy or bucket then racked to the six and a half gallon carboy before pitching the yeast. Hopefully I won't see too much of an off flavor once the primary fermentation has finished and all the particles have resettled into a fresh trub layer.
Another tip from Palmer that is worth trying is to add some of the kit's liquid malt extract at the last ten minutes of the main boil, heating it only long enough to pasteurize.
The third thing I've been doing wrong, according to Palmer, is using too much water to steep the specialty grains. Instead of steeping in a full-boil five gallons of water, he suggests the best ratio is one gallon of water per one pound of grain, adding water to the mash to top up for the main boil. While this advice is contrary to the two kit recipes I've brewed so far, it seems worth trying on my next batch.
As an example, my first batch of Light Ale had so little trub after racking to the primary fermenter I didn't notice it much as the yeast started doing their thing. But the organic Double IPA settled with an inch thick layer of tan blobs an hour after pitching the yeast. Then, after 24 hours of quiet buildup, bubbles are now popping out of the airlock at two per second. The trub layer has gotten churned up by the active yeast till there's almost none left on the bottom of the primary fermenter. Aside from the color and the fantastic smell, the churn reminds me of how cream erupts in tea with a little lemon. (How I know what this looks like is another story having to do with an interstate road trip and sleep deprivation.) The contents of the fermenter could not be mistaken for anything but living and very vigorous organisms.
John Palmer's advice in "How To Brew" is that I should have let the wort settle for a couple of hours in a five gallon carboy or bucket then racked to the six and a half gallon carboy before pitching the yeast. Hopefully I won't see too much of an off flavor once the primary fermentation has finished and all the particles have resettled into a fresh trub layer.
Another tip from Palmer that is worth trying is to add some of the kit's liquid malt extract at the last ten minutes of the main boil, heating it only long enough to pasteurize.
The third thing I've been doing wrong, according to Palmer, is using too much water to steep the specialty grains. Instead of steeping in a full-boil five gallons of water, he suggests the best ratio is one gallon of water per one pound of grain, adding water to the mash to top up for the main boil. While this advice is contrary to the two kit recipes I've brewed so far, it seems worth trying on my next batch.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Brew Day 2: Organic Legacy Double IPA Kit
Lessons Learned: In hindsight, I'm really glad I brewed the newbie Light Ale kit from More Beer before jumping into this massive Double IPA from 7 Bridges Cooperative. In a definite case of learning from my mistakes, this brew came right within the target original gravity range at 1.072.
The D-IPA kit's recipe and instructions are also much more clearly written and focused. Twenty-one steps to drinking a strong, malty American style IPA.
Yeast: Since I made the slight mistake of buying this kit two months ago, I feared the yeast might be getting old, so I bought an extra bottle of liquid White Labs California Ale yeast from Mountain Homebrew in order to double my chances of a good fermentation. Note to self: a yeast starter flask has to be one of my next acquisitions. After a few hours at 75º resting atop our toaster-oven, the old yeast was pretty stable, but the newer-fresher bottle was about to blow. As soon as I cracked the seal, foam began to erupt out of the top of the bottle. At least I had the foresight to have it above the carboy so that only a few million yeast cells were lost.
Just as I was running out the door to begin the sparge, two of the neighborhood Mormon Church evangelists came knocking at the door to spread the gospel. I had to tell them I was in a crucial stage brewing a batch of beer. "Is there a better time we should come back?" they asked. Since my love of beer far overrides any inclination I might have in chatting about a religion that bans beer, I told them a simple, "No." Which my wife considers rude, but I figure, why waste their time and mine?
7 Bridges calls the recipe a mash-extract kit. What this means is that you steep a 3.5 lb. mixture of specialty grains 40 to 60 minutes at 150º and then you do a makeshift sparge. Since my brew kettle holds 8 gallons, I steeped in 5 gallons of water, then had my wife pour another 1.5 gallons of 170º water through the grain steeping bags as I held them open. I managed to get only slightly burned in the operation. And the mash smelled amazing! Note 2 to self: either splurge on a larger grain steeping bag, or dive right in to all-grain brewing and get proper mash and sparge equipment.
Hop Schedule: This being a Double IPA, the recipe calls for six different hop additions. The second of my mesh bags came undone and spilled Belgian Admiral pellets into the mash, but they pretty much settled to the bottom and weren't a problem. At the 40 minute mark I added a 1/2 teaspoon of Irish Moss to the kettle. It smells like kelp that has dried on the beach. Very much like the sea. And I noticed the beer in the carboy clearing almost instantly after pitching the yeast. Very visible light brown particles formed a distillate that quickly sank, making a thick layer on the bottom.
The OG test sample I pulled also settled and cleared as it rested on our kitchen counter. Even in this pre-fermented state, the beer tastes pretty good; rich and malty but brimming with all manner of bitter hops. The hop aroma doesn't yet jump right out and grab your nostrils, but I have a plan to fix that.
Dry Hopping: In about a week I plan to rack to a secondary 5 gallon fermenter and try my hand at dry hopping. I enhanced the kit with 2 oz. of American Summit hop pellets for a grapefruit nose.
The D-IPA kit's recipe and instructions are also much more clearly written and focused. Twenty-one steps to drinking a strong, malty American style IPA.
Yeast: Since I made the slight mistake of buying this kit two months ago, I feared the yeast might be getting old, so I bought an extra bottle of liquid White Labs California Ale yeast from Mountain Homebrew in order to double my chances of a good fermentation. Note to self: a yeast starter flask has to be one of my next acquisitions. After a few hours at 75º resting atop our toaster-oven, the old yeast was pretty stable, but the newer-fresher bottle was about to blow. As soon as I cracked the seal, foam began to erupt out of the top of the bottle. At least I had the foresight to have it above the carboy so that only a few million yeast cells were lost.
Just as I was running out the door to begin the sparge, two of the neighborhood Mormon Church evangelists came knocking at the door to spread the gospel. I had to tell them I was in a crucial stage brewing a batch of beer. "Is there a better time we should come back?" they asked. Since my love of beer far overrides any inclination I might have in chatting about a religion that bans beer, I told them a simple, "No." Which my wife considers rude, but I figure, why waste their time and mine?
7 Bridges calls the recipe a mash-extract kit. What this means is that you steep a 3.5 lb. mixture of specialty grains 40 to 60 minutes at 150º and then you do a makeshift sparge. Since my brew kettle holds 8 gallons, I steeped in 5 gallons of water, then had my wife pour another 1.5 gallons of 170º water through the grain steeping bags as I held them open. I managed to get only slightly burned in the operation. And the mash smelled amazing! Note 2 to self: either splurge on a larger grain steeping bag, or dive right in to all-grain brewing and get proper mash and sparge equipment.
Hop Schedule: This being a Double IPA, the recipe calls for six different hop additions. The second of my mesh bags came undone and spilled Belgian Admiral pellets into the mash, but they pretty much settled to the bottom and weren't a problem. At the 40 minute mark I added a 1/2 teaspoon of Irish Moss to the kettle. It smells like kelp that has dried on the beach. Very much like the sea. And I noticed the beer in the carboy clearing almost instantly after pitching the yeast. Very visible light brown particles formed a distillate that quickly sank, making a thick layer on the bottom.
The OG test sample I pulled also settled and cleared as it rested on our kitchen counter. Even in this pre-fermented state, the beer tastes pretty good; rich and malty but brimming with all manner of bitter hops. The hop aroma doesn't yet jump right out and grab your nostrils, but I have a plan to fix that.
Dry Hopping: In about a week I plan to rack to a secondary 5 gallon fermenter and try my hand at dry hopping. I enhanced the kit with 2 oz. of American Summit hop pellets for a grapefruit nose.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Bottling Day Arrives
Total output: Five 64 oz growlers, one 32 oz 1/2 growler, and six 22 oz bombers.
Before bottling even began, I figured out I would need a second bucket for sanitizing bottles and equipment. I mean, if you are going to use the bottling bucket to hold the beer you've racked from the secondary fermenter, that leaves only the brew kettle as a sanitizer reservoir while you're bottling. Note to self: always make sure the kettle's spigot is closed before starting to fill with six gallons of sanitizer solution.
The brew tastes like a flat, but very hoppy session beer at this stage. If it carbonates properly in the bottles, I'm confident this will be quite drinkable. Maybe not the most complex brew ever made, but it will be actual beer that I made. How cool is that?!
On the minus side, I'm pretty sure this beer will be hazy/cloudy. I was late to add the Whirlfloc pellet (related to Irish Moss) during the boil to draw out proteins that cause haze. To try and make up for that omission, I used isinglass forty-eight hours before bottling, with the beer well-chilled in the garage. Maybe some of the haze will settle out as the bottles condition.
I lost about three quarts in the boil, racking to secondary, and testing for specific gravity. From an initial six gallon boil, I ended up with just over four gallons for bottling. This discovery backs my earlier suspicion about boil off. And it has given me a good reason to mark my carboys all at the 5 gallon mark.
My choosing mixed sizes for bottling is an experiment to see how the different vessels support carbonation. I'm curious to see if the size of the bottle has any affect on the beer's taste. Plus, carrying a growler to share with a friends is easier than dealing with several bottles.
Before bottling even began, I figured out I would need a second bucket for sanitizing bottles and equipment. I mean, if you are going to use the bottling bucket to hold the beer you've racked from the secondary fermenter, that leaves only the brew kettle as a sanitizer reservoir while you're bottling. Note to self: always make sure the kettle's spigot is closed before starting to fill with six gallons of sanitizer solution.
The brew tastes like a flat, but very hoppy session beer at this stage. If it carbonates properly in the bottles, I'm confident this will be quite drinkable. Maybe not the most complex brew ever made, but it will be actual beer that I made. How cool is that?!
On the minus side, I'm pretty sure this beer will be hazy/cloudy. I was late to add the Whirlfloc pellet (related to Irish Moss) during the boil to draw out proteins that cause haze. To try and make up for that omission, I used isinglass forty-eight hours before bottling, with the beer well-chilled in the garage. Maybe some of the haze will settle out as the bottles condition.
I lost about three quarts in the boil, racking to secondary, and testing for specific gravity. From an initial six gallon boil, I ended up with just over four gallons for bottling. This discovery backs my earlier suspicion about boil off. And it has given me a good reason to mark my carboys all at the 5 gallon mark.
My choosing mixed sizes for bottling is an experiment to see how the different vessels support carbonation. I'm curious to see if the size of the bottle has any affect on the beer's taste. Plus, carrying a growler to share with a friends is easier than dealing with several bottles.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Racking to Secondary
Day 5: Racking the beer to a secondary five gallon carboy took about an hour, cleanup included. Note to self: Racking with the kit's fancy racking cane is really a two person operation unless you find some sanitary way to straighten and clamp the siphon hose to the secondary. The racking cane has a sort of cover/gasket designed to fit snugly onto a wide mouth plastic carboy. Unfortunately, it has a bit of slop in the fit of my 6.5 gallon glass primary carboy. Which means you have to use one hand to apply even pressure to the seal.
At the same time you've got to guide and maintain the sanitized siphon hose down into the secondary without contaminating things. Your feet end up doing this task.
In order to activate the siphon, you have a tiny air filter you blow through while crimping the hose with your other hand. Then you release the crimp when the beer starts to flow.
This is the point where the hose will pop out of the secondary and douse the floor, the inside of the closet, the insulating blanket on a chair nearby, and any paper products within a yard radius.
Well, at least I know the brew smells like good beer!
Final gravity has dropped to 1.014 at 68º from an OG of 1.052 at 60º, so the alcohol content seems a touch higher (6.1%) than the recipe predicted (3.8%). My guess is I got more boil-off than predicted. Need to calibrate the carboy to a five gallon mark.
The specific gravity sample tastes beer-like, but very bitter, with a butterscotch malt aroma. And very, very yeasty. This must be the definition of green.
Respiration is still building pressure inside the secondary. I haven't yet observed any bubbles passing through the airlock. But the dark brown kraeusen scum was left on the walls of the primary, along with a solid quarter inch of pale yeast cake.
I'm hopeful that in a few weeks this will be a pretty decent beer.
At the same time you've got to guide and maintain the sanitized siphon hose down into the secondary without contaminating things. Your feet end up doing this task.
In order to activate the siphon, you have a tiny air filter you blow through while crimping the hose with your other hand. Then you release the crimp when the beer starts to flow.
This is the point where the hose will pop out of the secondary and douse the floor, the inside of the closet, the insulating blanket on a chair nearby, and any paper products within a yard radius.
Well, at least I know the brew smells like good beer!
Final gravity has dropped to 1.014 at 68º from an OG of 1.052 at 60º, so the alcohol content seems a touch higher (6.1%) than the recipe predicted (3.8%). My guess is I got more boil-off than predicted. Need to calibrate the carboy to a five gallon mark.
The specific gravity sample tastes beer-like, but very bitter, with a butterscotch malt aroma. And very, very yeasty. This must be the definition of green.
Respiration is still building pressure inside the secondary. I haven't yet observed any bubbles passing through the airlock. But the dark brown kraeusen scum was left on the walls of the primary, along with a solid quarter inch of pale yeast cake.
 |
| A bit more air space than expected in the 5 gallon plastic carboy. |
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Mosquito in the Kraeusen
In spite of careful attention to sanitization, this morning I found a tiny mosquito floating atop the foam in my fermenter! Best guess is she flew into the kettle during the boil or after cooling. It was well after sunset by the time I finished cooling the wort. The garage lights would have attracted any mosquitos out braving the cold.
I used a bamboo cake probe, about as big around as a toothpick, to fish the insect out through the top of the carboy. Boy, if a bug as big as a mosquito can get in so easily, what else might have drifted into the mix? Hopefully, the action of the yeast will kill off anything ugly.
There's about an inch of kraeusen foam after twelve hours in the fermenter. And I've built a reinforced shelf twenty inches off the floor of the standing Ikea closet that is my fermenting booth. This way I won't have to disturb the fermenter when I rack to the secondary.
I used a bamboo cake probe, about as big around as a toothpick, to fish the insect out through the top of the carboy. Boy, if a bug as big as a mosquito can get in so easily, what else might have drifted into the mix? Hopefully, the action of the yeast will kill off anything ugly.
 |
| Fermenter porn. |
Saturday, November 27, 2010
Finally, I'm a Home Brewer!
My brother-in-law loaned me his propane burner this afternoon to boil my first batch of beer. He had planned on staying for the proceedings, but lost patience after half an hour and headed back home.
I really wanted a 6 1/2 gallon carboy for my primary fermentation vessel, so I took a short drive to Mountain Homebrew to pick one up. Also got a brush for cleaning the carboy, a bottle washer (that somehow doesn't fit my kitchen sink, even with the adapter), some DME for bottling time, and some one step cleaner/sanitizer.
My wife was on a rampage when I got home. Something about other chores that I should be doing instead of spending money and making beer. I ignored her tirade, for obvious reasons.
I had no disasters in brewing the "More Beer" LIght Ale mash extract kit that came with the brew equipment set. I'm lovin' the heavy duty brew pot. The eight gallon kettle meant I got to do a full boil starting with six gallons of water. For a little extra character, I put the grains into the toaster oven for a few minutes to get them just a little more brown. Started the bittering hops early in the mash steep per a tip from John Palmer's book, "How To Brew".
The wort chiller worked perfectly after a wee bit of spraying water from a loose clamp. It brought the temperature down to sixty degrees in about fifteen minutes. A heavy-duty drain spout on the kettle made the transfer to my new carboy a snap. The only thing a little off was what seems to be a high original gravity reading of 1.51instead of the estimated 1.038 to 42. Should have measured for the five gallon mark on the carboy. My guess is more water boiled off than is the norm.
Would love to get a side mounted thermometer for the kettle's second threaded fitting.
Now begins primary fermentation. Hopefully the yeast are happy. I primed them in 4 oz of warm water, and they seemed to be alive and active. The unfermented beer tasted mildly sweet, but also quite bitter from the relatively small amount of hops. Decided to use a fermentation lock on the 6 1/2 gallon carboy instead of a blow-off hose. The guy at the shop said he gets good results without the hose.
I'm already thinking the recipe could take a bit of dry hopping to really boost the floral notes in the aroma.
I really wanted a 6 1/2 gallon carboy for my primary fermentation vessel, so I took a short drive to Mountain Homebrew to pick one up. Also got a brush for cleaning the carboy, a bottle washer (that somehow doesn't fit my kitchen sink, even with the adapter), some DME for bottling time, and some one step cleaner/sanitizer.
My wife was on a rampage when I got home. Something about other chores that I should be doing instead of spending money and making beer. I ignored her tirade, for obvious reasons.
 |
| No boil-over! Full Steam ahead. |
I had no disasters in brewing the "More Beer" LIght Ale mash extract kit that came with the brew equipment set. I'm lovin' the heavy duty brew pot. The eight gallon kettle meant I got to do a full boil starting with six gallons of water. For a little extra character, I put the grains into the toaster oven for a few minutes to get them just a little more brown. Started the bittering hops early in the mash steep per a tip from John Palmer's book, "How To Brew".
The wort chiller worked perfectly after a wee bit of spraying water from a loose clamp. It brought the temperature down to sixty degrees in about fifteen minutes. A heavy-duty drain spout on the kettle made the transfer to my new carboy a snap. The only thing a little off was what seems to be a high original gravity reading of 1.51instead of the estimated 1.038 to 42. Should have measured for the five gallon mark on the carboy. My guess is more water boiled off than is the norm.
Would love to get a side mounted thermometer for the kettle's second threaded fitting.
Now begins primary fermentation. Hopefully the yeast are happy. I primed them in 4 oz of warm water, and they seemed to be alive and active. The unfermented beer tasted mildly sweet, but also quite bitter from the relatively small amount of hops. Decided to use a fermentation lock on the 6 1/2 gallon carboy instead of a blow-off hose. The guy at the shop said he gets good results without the hose.
I'm already thinking the recipe could take a bit of dry hopping to really boost the floral notes in the aroma.
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